0.17.00.00 Patch Notes

HIGHLIGHTS

INSTALLER UPDATES

Developer Note: These updates are shipping with the July 25th game update, which means players will need to update the game first to experience these improvements going forward.

Players will no longer be required to download and reinstall the entire client when updating Magic: The Gathering Arena. In future updates, players will only need to download the specific changes in the update.

In the event that a full client download is required, we will try in make note of this as part of our scheduled maintenance announcements.

Players will now be able to download certain assets prior to game updates. These downloads will happen in the background during normal play, and should decrease the amount that players need to download on release days – including card set releases!

Players now must login before assets begin to download.

Visual improvements to the installer.

GAME LOGS

As part of this update, our log outputs will be changing. For those of you who use tracking tools or software that rely on game logs, an example of the new output is available, here: .pdf / .txt

PLANE-CATION CHRONICLES

Each event will start on Sunday at 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC) and end on the following Tuesday at 11 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC). Players will have until 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC) Tuesday to join the event.

Players will earn rewards based on the number of wins, up to 6 wins for each event. Please Note: Each reward can only be earned once per event.

Players will be able to purchase the event rewards for gold at a future date.

Losses are not tracked; you can play in each event until you earn the rewards (or the event itself ends) without starting over.

No entry fee!

RAVNICA GUILD BATTLE: JULY 28TH – 30TH

Choose a guild-themed deck and battle it out against other guilds!

No deck building required! We provide the decks with the cards, you get to examine the decks and pick which one you want to play. You will also be able to change you deck selection between games – but you won’t be able to make any changes to the provided decklist!

Please Note: Event decks (and their cards) will not be added to your collection.

BASIC LANDS

COLLECTION

Developer’s Note: Since we’re introducing the ability for players to earn and/or purchase basic lands, we want to be clear: We currently plan to continue granting all players access to basic lands with regular card frames for each Standard set release. Alternate versions of set-specific basic lands (such as full-art, alternative frames, promo versions, etc.) may require play, purchase, or only be available through promotions. We also may reach a point where we stop granting lands from sets that have rotated out of Standard to newer players (i.e. players who join MTG Arena after those sets have rotated). However! All players will have access to new basic lands with regular card frames for each Standard set release, and once those cards are in your collection we have no intention of removing them.

To view the Basic Lands available in your collection, you must enable the “Basic Land” filter under the “Advanced Filter Options”.

As long as the Basic Land filter is enabled, you can also filter by set, color identity, and whether or not the card is in your collection using the other Advanced Filter Options.

You only need one copy of each basic land card; as long as you have one copy of the basic land with the illustration you wish to use, you can add any number of that land to your deck/s.

GAMEPLAY

GENERAL

When permitted by the rules, you can now cancel casting a spell (or activating an effect) while selecting an X cost.

When the opponent plays a permanent in the second main phase that has an end step trigger, you will now get a proper response window before proceeding to the end step (e.g. You can destroy Wilderness Reclamation before your opponent’s lands untap)

The auto-passing system should be much smarter about preserving the window to respond to permanents flashed in during Declare Attackers and End Steps.

AUTOTAP

When something causes the autotap solution to change between the time that it was displayed and the time the payment is actually being made, autotap will now pause to allow players to review the new solution. You can use the “Pay ” button to accept the new solution or tap lands manually to use a different one.

MATCH CLOCK

There is now a clock icon visible near the hourglass/timeout icon whenever you are in a game that uses a match clock.

Players can always hover the match clock to show the amount of time remaining on your clock.

We’ve updated the values for when the match clock will automatically become visible once a player’s time begins to run low:

Game 1: Less than 15 minutes remain (previously 10).

Game 2: Les than 12 minutes remain (previously 8 )

Game 3: Less than 9 minutes remain (previously 6)

Sideboarding: As a general reminder, the match clock does not run during sideboarding.